Sunday, October 14, 2007

Suffering and creativity

True creativity, according to jazz musician Eugene Lowry, is like a river. One bank is "suffering," and the other is "grace." The tighter the banks, the faster the flow.

Lots of creative people are happy, contented, jovial types who get along equally well with two-year-olds and rattlesnakes. Others are depressed, miserable, and driven to create masterpieces that bring them no joy whatsoever.

"Human salvation," said Martin Luther King Jr., "lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted."


I think we should all try to pull away from the model of the unhappy person driven by inner compulsions to draw, write, sing, design, or in some other way express a creative idea. What do you think?